The students were from at least 19 countries and many were part of the Erasmus exchange programme between European universities, emergency services said.

Regional leader, Carles Puigdemont, told a local radio station that all the victims were women.

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Emergency services at the scene of a bus crash that killed more than a dozen students in Spain on Sunday.

The bus crashed and overturned at about 6am local time on Spain's eastern coast. After swerving onto the other side of the road, it had hit an oncoming car, injuring both passengers.

The bus, which was carrying 61 passengers, according to estimates from the authorities, was driving away from Valencia on the last weekend of the Fallas festival, known for its big fireworks displays.

"There were students on board, many of them foreign students studying in Catalonia and in Barcelona who had travelled to Valencia for the Fallas and were returning," Jordi Jane, Catalonia's regional interior minister said at a televised news conference. He said the victims were all aged between 22 and 29.

The driver had been taken to a local police station, Jane said. The cause of the accident was not immediately clear but was most likely due to "human error", he said.

The AP7 highway that links Spain with France along the Mediterranean coast was blocked near Freginals, halfway between Valencia and Barcelona.

The driver had tested negative for alcohol and drug, a Catalan court said in a statement.

Catalonia's emergency services said in a statement that passengers on board included students from Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Great Britain, Italy, Peru, Bulgaria, Poland, Ireland, the Palestinian Territories, Japan, Ukraine, Holland, France and Finland.